Missing cog in the machine (old)
by Zilkenian
Summary: In order to get a greater good, sacrifices must be made. But what happens when everything works only on ONE of them? You have to find the last piece and make everything work, and that piece is inside the one who can't remember . NOTE: This starts before the Respawn system existed.
1. Rain in 2Fort

Rain.

Drops of water was the first thing he noticed when he started to wake up. The second thing was the floor under his face. Under his whole body to be exact. He could feel he was lying on the floor, with his back looking at the clouded sky.

Why was he there? How did he end on the floor in the first place? He tried to move his body. At first, only his hands answered to that order. Then his legs, but he couldn't do a lot with them in that position. Everything hurt at that point, but the pain wasn't his main problem. He tried to sit, only to see the strenght in his body was practically gone. Then, he tried to do something else.

"Move the head" he thought "Move the head and look around". Surprise, he could do that. With a bit of help from his arms and hands, he was able to lift his head and look around. The place was familiar. It was that small uncovered place, between the safe room and the intel room, in 2Fort. Oh yes, that name rang so many bells in his head. It started to hurt, a headache taking place in the middle of the confusion.

"Why?" he asked himself "why am I here? Where is the rest of my team?"

And then, everything fell on him like a bucket of ice water. His team! They were fighting, he was healing them, and then the BLUs came attacking all of sudden, every single one of them, in a desperate attempt of getting the intel. And his RED team? What happened to them?

Trying to focus his sight he found out his glasses were missing. Bullets. Lots of them. Explosions. Blood everywhere. Of course, he was a doctor, blood wasn't an issue for him, but it was kind of different when it came from your teammates. The rain kept falling on him, and he felt the strenght coming back to him. He finally sat up, and looked around himself. So much blood for a normal day. He tried to stand up, to walk and find someone, anyone, from his team. Where was heavy, his closest friend? Where were the rest?

He managed to stand, but his head hurt even more; "Not time for zhis now...I need to find zhem" he thought. Trying one shy step, then another, little by little turning into a somewhat normal walk cycle, he went out of that tiny place into the corridor. Trying to remember, he kept walking until he found the door to outside. And then he saw it. And then all the memories came back.

Yes, they were fighting. Yes, they were losing. Yes...he got caught in an explosion and his body flew back until it hit the wall. He could feel his friend's big arms taking him to a safe place, and then going back to protect the rest of the fort. He could remember the explosion, the screaming, everything...and the result was right in front of him.

And he wasn't prepared for it.

Everyone was lying on the floor, and no one was moving. He was a doctor, he knew what was happening, but his human side couldn't accept the fact of being the last survivor of the war; the only one. He ran next to the Heavy, to his friend, and kneeled down besides him. He didn't need to take his pulse to know the condition: of course he was dead. Like everyone else, BLUs and REDs alike. But he couldn't accept it. He felt the tears going down his face, the desperation rising inside his chest, his mind going numb. Everyone he knew and trust was right there. Why? because he got caught in the explosion and couldn't come back to heal them.

Did he fail them? It wasn't his fault, but he felt like it was. He was a doctor, and still he couldn't get his usual cold side to work in this situation. Not even his voice was working now. Neither his thoughts.

He touched his best friend's arm and then felt himself fading away. His mind couldn't hold anymore this situation. Or it was the blood loss? Because he was injured. He could feel every single wound in his body, he could feel he was still losing blood, if he didn't receive treatment soon, he would die as well. But did it matter now?

Looking once more at the sky, he screamed, his mind finally giving up. Out of this place there was nothing for him, so he was alone now. He kept screaming until his voice couldn't go anymore. And then, a light in the sky came into view.

He just watched his friend once more, and stayed there, until a pair of hands grabbed him from under his arms, and took him away. He didn't have the strenght to fight back, he just let those people take him whenever they wanted. Something was placed on his nose and mouth, and the world went dark.

And in the middle of that dreamless sleep, something inside of him snapped.


	2. White with RED lines

He could feel some different things around him. He was on a bed, the room was white with some red lines, and he was connected to different kind of machines. Yes, he was in some sort of hospital room, but not in a hospital.

He looked around him. Where was he? He couldn't remember a single thing about why was he there, all he knew is he was recovering from something. He could barely remember anything about himself, but he knew a lot about medicine. How come he could know that much about being a doctor, and only know his name and nothing else?

"Klauss" he said out loud, even if his voice was still a bit weak "I'm Klauss...I must...oh, is zhat a dove?"

He looked at a small, golden cage in a corner of the room, with a white dove sitting peacefully inside. The animal was sleeping. Klauss tried to sit on his bed in order to get a better look at the bird, but the moment he managed to sit up, a voice called his attention from the other side of the room.

"It seems you can move more than we thought" he looked at the source of the voice. It was a woman, who could perfectly be in her fifties, with a face no one would know if she was being nice or planning on cutting your head off "we thought you would be in bed for a day or two more. Better this way, we'll be able to start in less time than we thought"

He tried to say anything, but the woman cut him raising her hand and closing her eyes, before she continued, looking back at him "I know you have a lot of questions. First, let me introduce myself: I'm the Administrator, the one who must help the team RED win over the BLU. I think you'll remember that" he slowly nodded "you were injured in the last battle, and I'm afraid we had to...send home some of your old teammates. That affected your memory as well, so it's perfectly normal if you feel strange or confused..."

"I feel quite fine, in fact, I feel perfect! Look, zhere's a dove right zhere! Can you believe it?!" He was excited about the bird. He didn't even know why, but his mind only gave him the same order: be happy, be excited, enjoy every single moment. Somehow, even with this one and only order, in the back of everything he knew something was wrong, but it was pushed deeper into the dark by his happiness "I'm afraid it's part of zhe hospital..."

"It's all yours" she answered, like reading his mind "we think that having something to...take care of might make your recovery better. The moment you can move by yourself you'll be assigned to another RED team, so you can continue with your job" he looked at her, trying to process all the information, but all his mind could think was about keeping the dove "of course, you can keep the dove after your recovery. You can take him with you to what will be your new base"

"Excellent!" he said with excitement, but that didn't last long. He started to feel tired again. He thought it was probably because he was still injured...but why? How did he...?

"Ack!" He bent over, his head almost touching his legs. His head was hurting like a lot of needles were puncturing it without mercy. He could barely see or hear, but he noticed how the Administrator stood up and called for someone. He couldn't understand what was she saying or to who, and the next thing he saw was a pair of...doctors? coming inside the room and helping him lie back on the bed. After that, everything went dark again, but not before a scent of smoke went around his nose.

...

"You know you're not supposed to smoke in here" said the Administrator to the mysterious figure, hiding in the darkest corner of the room "but I guess we could make the exception with you. What do you have for me?" the figure in the corner took a step out of the darkness, turning off his cigarette, and walking towards her. Almost all his face was hidden behind a red balaclava, same color as his suit. With a calm voice, he started giving her the information he could get from that fight.

"It seems your power over the BLU team led to the desired outcome" he said, looking for a moment to the sleeping Medic while the doctors were leaving the room, and then back to her "but I'm afraid the project "Respawn" is still not giving de results we are waiting for"

"I know. We lost two teams in order to test that machine, and erased almost all the memory from the survivor. It seems we aren't getting anything with this but losing mercenaries in the process. I can't go an test it on more teams before we know..." The man held a hand in front of him, like asking for her permission to contnue with something else she didn't know. After a nod from her, he kept talking. "As you asked me, I was acting as the Spy on the RED team; I was with the RED Heavy when he was carrying the injured Medic to that safe place, and then the Heavy asked me to stay with the Medic in order to make sure he was alright"

The Administrator didn't now what this had to do with the Respawn system she wanted so bad to finish, so she could stop hiring mercenaries and reuse the ones she already had again and again. "What are you trying to tell me?"

"After the Heavy left" he started again "the Medic died"

The Administrator's eyes couldn't open more with surprise. If the Medic died, and he was sleeping on the bed in the same room she was in, that meant...

"Exactly" said the man, like he was reading her mind "the Respawn system brought him back".


	3. Only him and no one else

**I'm not exactly good with accents and stuff, so I'll probably just put the ones on Medic and nothing else. Expect a normal talking Demoman fellas! Also, I'm not planning on doing this too long, since I don't have a lot of time and I don't want to leave it unfinished. **

**Please enjoy the story :).**

...

"But..." the Administrator couldn't comprehend why the system only worked for only one mercenary "...why him? Why only him?". The man in front of her just looked at the ceiling, like thinking. He was confused as well, since the Medic didn't die the last, neither the first, he didn't do anything strange the time the Spy was watching the team, and he died when he was taken away. What else could happen for the Respawn to only take him and no one else?

"I want you to go with him to his new RED team..." she looked at him "...which will be your old RED team. I want you to watch him carefully; I'll test the Respawn with your team, specially with him. I want to know if the odds repeat, or the man just had a lucky moment. Also, I'll need all the information about the Respawn System perfomance while being active".

The Spy frowned for a moment. He wasn't a man of friends, but what she called "his old team" was, in fact, his true team before he started going from team to team testing the Respawn System on them. Of course, he survived every single time becaue he knew when to hide, the moment the Respawn System would be tested and both teams would go in a raging attack against each other (special gift from the Administrator, of course). Knowing that his RED team would go on a rampage against their enemy BLU team, and lose everyone was...

He found himself staring at the sleeping Medic. "Of course" he thought "it would be like what happened to him...". The Administrator went next to the sleeping man on the bed, and looked at he Spy "I know what your team is doing with the BLU team assigned in your battlefield. You're more like ballerinas rather than mercenaries, but I didn't say anything because you preserved the fight without having any death, which made my work easier. And I'll let you keep it that way, as long as you keep this Medic alive until the time comes. And when that moment comes, I'm afraid he'll be the first one to test the Respawn System. If he fails, and the Respawn doesn't works on him again, I'm afraid your team will have to take his place in the experiment. I hope you understand this"

The RED Spy clenched his fist, not enough for her to notice but hard enough to demonstrate himself he wasn't an ice block "I understand" he understood, but he didn't like it one bit. "Of course" she continued "The Medic must NEVER know about this. We were able to take the memory about his last team and all their deaths, as well as some from his past life, a small side effect, but it seems his mind still suffers the consequences of the shock, as you could see right here the short moment he was awake. For now, he's safe and won't cause any trouble, but if he starts recovering his memory I'm afraid he may turn a bit...unstable"

The Spy couldn't hold a shiver. He saw that man yelling under the rain for the loss of his team, and that was one of the worst screams he ever heard; the voice of desperation of someone who lost everything. And now he had to take care of him, so he wouldn't snap and go crazy on his team. Wonderful "Understood. When could I go with my team? I must tell them we are about to have a Medic"

"The moment he recovers, which will be soon for what I saw. It seem we still need to work on his memory a bit more, but it will be sooner rather than later when you can leave. Now I'll go back to my job; a lot more RED and BLU teams must continue with the war. I'll see you later, Spy" and with a smal nod from him, she left the room.

Spy then turned around, and went next to the bed where the Medic was sleeping. He looked down at the man, with a mixture of anger and disgust "It seems we are teammates now, and I'm expecting you to perform adequately with my team".

But then his expression softened, only a bit. After all, that man just losed all his teammates, and the Administrator played with his head without even caring for important memories. He was looking at a broken man, who's shell was all that was holding the rest of him. But he still didn't want a time bomb go off with his team nearby, and this Medic was a quite dangerous time bomb himself.

He turned to the door, and giving one last glance at the Medic, left, closing the door behind him.

...

Two weeks had passed and the Medic was able to stand, run, sing, play the violin, clap and a lot more of stupid things he made sure to try. The Administrator finally decided to allow him to go to his new RED team with the RED Spy.

And today was the day. The RED Spy was waiting for the new RED Medic outside, next to a car that he would drive to the train station. The Administrator gave him a special cloaking device with a software that could monitor the performance of the Respawn System in his battlefield.

He couldn't do anything to the system but watch what it was doing, so he was left as a watcher more than anything. Nothing he would argue with, but being a team's watcher, a crazy Medic watcher and the darn Respawn System watcher was a bit too much to be in the shadows, specially when all of them, machine included, were morons that couldn't do their job correctly. Yes, he put his team in the moronic category: he cared about them, but those gentlemen were nothing but clowns in the fight, along with the BLUs.

Finally, the Medic came out of the building, holding the golden cage with the dove inside. He was smiling (like an idiot, from Spy's point of view), looking at the bird (stupid as well) which was...looking back at him? Once the Medic noticed him, he smiled at the Spy, who nodded in response, and they got in the car. During the first part of the trip to the train station no one said anything, much to Spy's relief, but that calm didn't last long.

"I've heard we're going with your old team. Are zhey nice? Do zhey like doves? Did zhey ever had a medic before?" and another ton of questions. Spy didn't know if he was driving with his new Medic or a five years old kid. He sighed, and tried to ignore the other man, who kept asking like he didn't care if the Spy was listening or not. Yes, he was crazy indeed.

But then the Spy froze at one question, and nearly stopped the car if it wasn't because he was a trained man.

"Are zhey strong enough to not die?" was the question the Medic asked. The Spy looked briefly at him, and saw the man was still smiling. For a moment he thought the Medic was getting something back, but no, it was probably a random question like all the others. And "the others" were mostly about keeping doves in the base. The Spy looked back at the road, and with a calm voice, he answered the Medic.

"They are strong, but we don't...exactly fight to the death. You just stay around, heal those you see with a broken nail or anything else, and everything will go as planned, alright?" the Medic nodded and then watched the road, not asking anything else. The bird in the cage just got into what seemed a comfortable position, and stayed quiet for the rest of the car trip.

The train time wasn't something very eventful, and at some point, both Medic and dove fell asleep, which gave the Spy some time to think about all this mess.

But then something came back into his mind. When the Medic died, something was off, and he saw it.

He tried to remember, but it happened a month ago, and it was probably nothing important...

All of sudden, everything came back to him. All the memories of that day flowing like a raging river, and in the middle of them, somehing that could be important for the whole success of the Respawn System. When he saw the Medic die, lying on the floor, he saw something else. The Medipack was still on his back, and...

"It had a hole on the side..."


	4. He's a genius

**First of all, I know I made a mistake with time in the past chapter. If Medic was ready to go in 2 weeks, it's impossible that the whole thing happened a month ago, so I'm sorry, I'll try to change it when I can.**

**Also, I'm sooo done with accents. I'm afraid I commit more mistakes by doing them, and most of the time I forget to put them in their correct places, so I end up reading the whole thing a third time in order to correct the accent ("zhis" instead of "this", for example), so I'll go with normal speech for all of them. Just imagine they're having a strong french/german/put anything here accent, ok? Thanks XD.**

...

Spy's luck was something scarce lately. The more he wanted to stay away from the Medic, the more the other man wanted to stay close to him, like a...how would Sniper put it? Oh yeah, bloody magnet. He facepalmed all over himself: he was using Sniper's way of saying things now. Desperation creates the horror.

The Medic had awoken some time ago, and now his impatience for knowing things was getting on Spy's nerves; like a five years old kid. Of course, the man had an amnesia as big as a plane, but Spy didn't want to empathize with someone he may have to kill at some point to prove that the Respawn System worked. And if at some point the machine started to, lets say, proper work? They would be able to come back from the death again and again...an idea the Spy liked more and more.

Still, one thing kept going around his head: that hole in the Medipack. It was leaking its contents on the Medic: could that have something to do with the Respawn System picking only Medic and no one else? That would be preposterous, since the rest of the team received his healings as well from the same source.

Then again, that Medipack looked different from the rest the organitzation provided to the rest of the Medics. Was something this Medic did by himself? Maybe the liquid inside was his own creation as well? Was this crazy, lunatic and bird-loving man the last piece they needed?

He looked over the Medic, who was still asking questions about their destination, how it was, and if they loved birds. Specially doves, of course, since his new pet...Archimedes was it? Couldn't live in good condition if the rest hated him. As if the bird gave a damn about anything around it more than food and water and a nice place to sleep...which turned out to be the Medic's shoulder. The man kept the bird out of the cage, and the bird decided his owner's shoulder was a good place to stay put.

"I don't think that would be true..." Spy said to himself; looking at the man it was hard to believe that he was the missing cog in their machine. Then again, the man wasn't like this before...that fight. The train finally arrived to their destination, and Spy was the first one to get out of it, followed by the Medic. Spy's team only had a Medic once, and he died some time ago, when the BLUs and them didn't have their little pact: no killing, only harm a bit, make the show look good and go home. Today you win, tomorrow we'll win. It was a good way to survive and keep the war active, and the Administrator liked it...kind of. The only problem was his team was still a bit touched for losing a member. The way they lost him was kind of...dramatic.

Well, he knew at some point they would accept the new Medic, specially if he was this goof who couldn't make two steps without asking where to put the third.

Finally, after thirty painful minutes, they arrived to Spy's original base. "Home, sweet home" said Spy out loud. The Medic only watched the whole scene with a blank stare, not saying anything. They kept walking into what looked like another 2Fort. Spy knew the organitzation had different bases look the same, so they could keep the same rules and not think in making more. Both of them stepped inside the RED fort, which inside looked almost exactly like the other one, and went into the intel room, where the Engineer was working in some blueprints and a new dispenser.

When the Engineer (who everyone liked to call "Engie") looked at them, a smile formed in his face. He went towards the Spy to give him a salute with a hand on the shoulder, which for once, the Spy greeted with a smile. The Spy didn't know why, but the Engie was one of those you can't get angry with, no matter what he does.

"It's good to finally see your face around here...well, almost all of it" said the Engie. Spy sighed, in a joking way "It's been quite a while, but I had things to do. How are things doing around here?". Engie smiled, before answering "The BLUs are keeping their word more than ever: we have been doing great, the whole team...well, the rest of the team is safe as long as both of us keep the pact, also..." he stopped, all of sudden looking at the Medic, who was watching the blueprints "Spy...who is him?" asked, with a serious tone.

The Spy knew the Engie wasn't exactly pleased with the new teammate, since the death of their old Medic happened only a few months ago. He cleared his throat, and then, keeping the Engie close, so the Medic couldn't hear anything (something easy, the man was hypnotized with the blueprints), he started to tell the man what happened.

"His whole team and the BLUs in his base died in a very fierce battle" he started, being careful of not telling anything about the Medic dying, the Respawn system and things the Administrator wanted to keep in secrecy for now "he fell into a shock state and lost almost all his memory. But he still has most of his medical knowledge, so the Administrator assigned him to our team, since we...well, you know" the Spy looked at the Engie, waiting for an answer. But he already could see the man's expression had softened after hearing the story.

And then the Spy realized something: they were in one of the 2Fort bases, almost like the one the Medic lost his whole team. He looked at the doctor, who was still watching the blueprints and...writting something? The Engie noticed that, and went next to the man, almost running. The Spy went as well, but keeping the distance. The Engie seemed surprised by whatever the Medic was writting, and looked back at the Spy. "You say he had lost his memory..." The Spy nodded "well...darn..." he took the paper the Medic just finished writting, and looked at it carefully. Meanwhile, the Medic was just playing with Archimedes, like nothing happened, and kept walking around the place, watching every single detail with a goofy smile on his face.

The Engie gave the paper to the Spy, who looked at it carefully as well. There were a lot of calculations and numbers Spy couldn't understand, so he looked back at Engie, who was surprised and almost...smiling? "I had a problem with the new design for my dispenser, and that man just solved it. He's a genius!" he said, taking the paper back from the Spy "I better start working on this! Oh..." he approached the Medic, who finally noticed him. "The name's Engineer, well, at least the codename. Nice to meet you Doc". The Medic answered the same, they shook hands and, after thanking him, the Engie went back to his work. Spy took that as a chance to leave the room and allow the Medic to meet the rest of the team and have a tour around the base, since it looked like the Medic didn't react to the place.

...

After showing him the base, the Spy just wanted to have some peace and quiet as far from the Medic as possible, so he decided to take the Medic with the only man who could take care of him: the Heavy.

They found the man in the kitchen, all by himself, doing his usual "sandvich". Even before the Spy could say anything, the Medic approached the large man, smiling like an idiot (something the Spy got used by now). What Spy couldn't really predict was the other man's reaction. Would he be mad? After all, the last Medic was his best friend, or something like that. Heavies and Medics always had that strange connection nobody could understand. The Heavy turned around and saw the Medic. then, he looked at the Spy, surprised, and back at the Medic, who was still smiling. Did that man ever stop smiling?

The Spy just stood there, waiting for a reaction, and ready to get in the way if the Heavy decided to punch the Medic to death. But nothing happened, so the Spy went next to the heavy and explained the same he said to the Engineer. Heavy's expression kind of calmed down, and when the Spy saw it was safe, he let the Heavy approach the Medic.

"I'm Heavy, nice to meet you Doktor" the Medic smiled back at him. "I think I'm the Medic, so I guess that's going to be my name from now. It's a pleasure to meet..." his smile disappeared for a moment. Spy noticed that, and feared that the Medic may have a memory back. Both images, the new Medic next to the corpse of his best friend Heavy, and the Heavy of his team holding his best friend's corpse, their old Medic, were a cruel irony. Also, he didn't know how strong the procedure of whatever the Administrator did to the new Medic's memory was, so he had to be careful with everyth...

"I'm sorry" finally said the Medic "I think the trip left me a bit tired...and maybe hungry. Yes! I'm hungry!" at the same moment his stomach started to protest. The Heavy couldn't do anything but smile, and shake his head. He could see it was more than clear that this man, this new Medic, was far from lost, and he really needed help. Yes, he wasn't his old best friend, but no one said you can't make new friends, right?

"Come Doktor, I was making sandvich. I'll make one for you". The Medic smiled and followed him. The Spy sighed, content, and decided to leave and get some calm time for himself.

He went into his room, which was kind of dusty for his absence, but not enough to notice that someone had been cleaning it from time to time. He sat on his chair, looking through the windows, trying to relax his mind in order to be able to think in everything that happened in that short time.

'He's a genius!' those Engie's words kept repeating in his mind. What if the Medic did know more than he thought? What if he still knew how to create his Medipack liquid? Then again, what if...the Spy himself was wrong, and he was trying to go through an incorrect path?

The Medic...no, Klauss was the only one the Respawn revived that day. He needed the logs of the machine in order to know what exactly happened; he would have to ask the Administrator for them, but later: right now he needed rest. He went to his bed.

"He is a genius..." said to himself, and then fell asleep.


	5. Klauss

**This one is a bit shorter, but I don't have enough time :'(.**

**I'll try to update as soon as I can. But until then, please enjoy.**

**Also, thanks for the reviews! **

...

Two months have passed and everything looked normal...or at least as normal as a crazy man could see it.

Spy didn't know where he was getting into until he saw where everything was going. And it was madness. The team, of course, accepted the Medic at some point, with special help from the Heavy, who actually liked the new doctor and decided to be close to him (the man had his patience, the Spy gave him that). The battles went according to the plan they established between teams. They would always yell at each other, or leave someone trapped in any place for the giggles, or casually shoot at the ground next to anyone to scare him. Sometimes a bullet would find its target, but since they had a Medic now, the doctor would quickly go to his side and heal it.

The Spy could see that the new Medic was making no progress about his memory: the man was as clueless as a child, and the fact that he always kept a grin on his face didn't help at all. More than once, the Spy would sneak into the doctor's infirmary, and would find the man laughing with Heavy, talking about anything while the Medic performed some sort of experiment on a body part (gift from the Administrator), and Archimedes would just stare at everything from its master's shoulder.

But that night was going to be different. As usual, the Spy would sneak in the infirmary, but this time he found the Medic alone. He was staring thoughtfull at some kind of red liquid in a jar. The Spy quickly connected the dots: that was what the Medipack used in order to heal everyone.

"You can uncloak, I wasn't planning on being alone tonight anyway" said the man, glaring at him. How could he know he was there? The Spy, surprised, decided to stop being invisible, and hiding his surprise, approached the Medic "can I ask you what are you doing?".

Medic nodded a bit, and then his eyes went back to that red liquid "Spy, I'm a crazy man, and I'm always fascinated by anything that happens around me. It's like...living a second childhood. But I wasn't always like this, right?" the Spy sighed, and then nodded slowly "no, you weren't like this before, but I don't see what's the problem here: you lost your memory due to a shock. That's why I think...it's better if you don't remember"

The Medic frowned a bit, but then looked at the Spy and smiled again, like an idiot "yeah! I think you're right! Look at this for example! Is red, and can heal!" he said, pointing the liquid. The Spy got close to the strange cotents of that jar, and looked at it "did you make this?"

"JA!" said the Medic, grin from ear to ear "found the formula in my head, and I've been doing since then. It works alright, ja?"

This time, the Spy got him by the arms, close to the shoulders "you found it in your head?! you mean you're the inventor of this?!" he knew he shouldn't be this nervous around people, but if that man was really a genius, and that formula could make the Respawn System work, they would finally be able to stop losing people around them.

The Medic nooded slowly, looking scared. He didn't know why, all of sudden, the Spy looked so upset. Maybe he shouldn't have said that? Or do the liquid? The Spy relaxed a bit, not letting him go, but not keeping the grip that strong "How do you do it? Could it be done in a big scale?" Spy asked. Medic looked puzzled for a second. Maybe his invention could help others in this organitzation? But the main ingredient was quite scarce...

"Not exactly in a big scale...but I could do more. But I would need time in order to do more than what I usually do" the Medic answered. The Spy could notice something was wrong with creating more of that red thing. Maybe the Medic needed something that was scarce? He could tell the Administrator to give him more of it. Maybe it was the procedure? Maybe it was because it needed time to be ready? The Spy found himself getting impatient.

Since when he wanted the Respawn System so bad?

And then he knew. He finally knew why he wanted the Respawn finished and done. They lost their Medic, the old one, the one who was friend of everyone, including Spy. He wanted a system that could bring back the death so they wouldn't have to lose anyone else. He didn't care about this new Medic. He didn't care enough...did he?

He looked at the Medic in front of him, who looked back at him with some concern, but still like an idiot.

The Medipack was broken that day...it was leaking..."Medic, could you inject that thing into anyone?" surprised by the question, the Medic looked at the red juice, and then back at the Spy, nodding. "what would be the effects of that procedure?" asked the Spy again.

Medic thought about it "well, since it needs the Medipack in order to work in a healing way, it does absolutely nothing, hahaha!" again with the stupid smile. But that was all what Spy needed. "alright then, try to make more when you can, there's something I want to test with it." and started to leave the room before the Medic could say anything else. Everytime he was with this man, his patience went downhill and he needed a rest. Oh, how easy would be to kill him on the spot. But then he stopped. He didn't say would or wouldn't, he just knew what that thing would do. The Spy turned around and faced the Medic. Of course, the man was stil smiling like an idiot.

"How do you know it does nothing when injected?" the Spy asked. This time, the Medic's grin turned into something the Spy only saw before he lost all his memory, a dark grin only the old Klauss would do "because, mein freund, I already injected myself with it."


	6. Please!

Quick update because I got inspired, and that happens rarely these days.

Thanks Lohr!

Strrix, the medipack in this story is the one with the gun. They already have that kind of technology, but is quite limited. The organitzation gives one to every Medic, but Klauss is creating one on his own, the closer version to the medipack we all love :D.

Also, english is still not my main language, so it may be some mistakes here and there. I read the whole chapter twice to find anything wrong, but I may have left some wrong things in it, so I'm sorry about it.

Please enjoy.

...

Like the pieces of a puzzle, everything was getting a place in Spy's mind. With the Medic's...no, Klauss gaze on him, he knew what was going on. Klauss was getting his way back, even with whatever the Administrator did to him, he was fighting back. He knew he wasn't full back yet, but that grin, and now the serious face, told him the man in front of him wasn't the idiot he had been for the past months.

His watch beeped, showing him an image of a little device with a red light on it. It wasn't the Respawn, so...

"What happened that day Spy?" asked Klauss, with a very serious, even dangerous, tone "I can't remember, but I know something happened, and it was bad, very...very bad" Spy looked back at him "Spy, please..." this time the man looked like he was about to fall in desperation.

"You lost everything, that's what happened" Spy started, surprised with the cold tone in his voice "We were testing a new device we call the "Respawn System": a new technology that can bring back the death, fully alive with no injuries." Klauss eyes widened, but didn't say anything, so the Spy continued "the Administrator made the BLU team charge on full force against your RED team. We lost almost an entire unit, but the experiment was a success: the Respawn System brought you back"

Klauss was speechless. He looked down, shock in his face. He lost everyone just for an experiment? And yet he survived the process? Why?

Spy watched carefully the reactions from Klauss: he knew he was being downright cruel with the man, but he needed all the information he could get from him. Klauss looked at the red liquid in the jar next to him. "I..." Spy's watch started to beep louder, with brigther red light "I think...I tried...the Medipack liquid that day...with myself...I..." the Medic held his head with one hand. Spy knew he was going in dangerous territory doing this: if the man got his memories back, they could fail, but now he knew he was on the right track: Klauss formula, somehow, made the Respawn System pick its signature, process it and restore the dead body back to life. That's all what he needed for now.

"I'm afraid, Klauss, I can't allow you to stay this way. I'm pretty sure you'll understand..." Klauss took him by the arms before he could finish.

"Don't! I need my memories in order to help! I can help with the Respawn System, maybe we can bring the old team back! Maybe we can bring Heav..."

"I'm sorry doctor" Spy answered, getting away from the scared man. And before Klauss could say anything else, he pushed a small button in his watch and Klauss body tensed, before falling onto the floor, unconscious. The Administrator not only gave him a software to see how the Respawn System was doing, but also another one to control whatever was installed in Klauss mind, to keep his memories under control. "The control of the mind...the irony of this is endless". Then he took a small sample of the red liquid and, leaving the Medic on the floor, he left the room.

...

"Doktor! I made sandvich for you!" the Heavy entered the infirmary holding a plate with two sandwiches. The old Medic used to work for hours and forgot to eat, so he made his duty to bring him food and talk with him. He asked himself if this new Medic had a Heavy friend like him. Of course he had a friend like him, every single team has a Heavy, and they usually befriend the Medic of their team.

After not receiving and answer, he decided to enter the room. He was sure he could say sorry after, since the new Medic was always so happy and smiling. Of course, the man didn't remember anything, but Heavy was alright with it.

But then the plate fell from his hand when he saw the Medic on the floor, not moving. With all the memories flooding back to his mind, he rushed to the Medic's side and took him carefully in his arms. This scene was too familiar for him, and his body reacted before his mind could even think.

"Doktor! Doktor wake up!" he moved the Medic a bit, careful enough to not hurt him. His mind was keeping the image of his old friend dying in his arms, smiling at him and then closing his eyes for the last time. The large man was falling into desperation when Medic's eyes moved a bit, and then slowly opened too look at him.

Medic needed a bit to focus his sight, but once he did he smiled at the Heavy, and the man smiled back at him, helping him to sit on the floor.

"What happened Doktor?" asked the Heavy, while letting the other man get a look at his surroundings. The Medic looked around him, and then back to the Heavy "I don't know..." he answered "I was here working on my formula for the Medipack and then Spy came to talk with me a bit about it, and then...ack! I can't remember" he said, holding his head. The Heavy put a hand on his shoulder "Do not worry Doktor, everything is alright. I made sandviches, but..." he looked back at the broken plate on the floor. The Medic looked at it as well, and then laughed a bit "Well, I guess I'll have to cook something tonight. Still, danke Heavy. You really are a good friend"

"No problem!" said the Heavy, while helping the doctor stand up (he pretty much took the smaller man and put him in a standing position) and smiling. The Medic nodded another thanks, and then went to the door. When he was sure the Medic couldn't see him, Heavy looked down and his hands closed into fists. "Spy..." he murmured. Spy was his friend, yes, but he was playing a very dangerous game. Heavy didn't know what was really going on yet, but he made a promise to himself to discover whatever was wrong with the new Medic, and if the Spy was involved with it, he would make sure to have a word with him. And that word contained something more than just talking.

"Herr Heavy, is anything wrong?" Asked the Medic from the door when he noticed the large man didn't move. The Heavy looked at him, and smiled "everything is alright, Doktor" and then went with the Medic to the kitchen. He could pick the sandviches later. Now he needed to take care of his friend.

His Medic.


	7. Respawn

**I know, I know, I took more time than the last updates, but hey, class and job: they get all your time.**

**So here's one a bit longer, hope you like it :)**

**Also, yeah, I said I wanted this story to be short, right? yeah...about that...XD**

...

Everything was dark and silent. He was in the middle of the darkness, like floating in space. No sounds, no voices, no light...nothing. Nothing at all. He knew he was there because he could feel his own body, but nothing else. The feeling of solitude soon took over him, as he tried to call for someone, but only the silence answered him. He was growing impatience, when a bright light suddenly appeared in front of him. He closed his eyes, and then sound filled his ears. More than sound, noise. War noise.

He opened his eyes and found himself on the floor, lying on his back. He tried to sit up and look around: he didn't like what he saw one bit.

That day. That horrible day was repeating again! It had to be a dream, a nightmare. He knew what happened that day. He look around himself, now scared and nervous, until he found what he was looking for. His old friend, their old Medic, lying on the ground, his back facing the sky. He went right to his side, picking him carefully in his arms "Doktor!". He saw the Medic trying to move, but he had a big wound in his stomach, which was bleeding too much for the man to be saved.

Heavy didn't know what to do, not even in a dream he could save him. He tried to shake the man a bit, trying to not hurt him more. He couldn't see the Medic's face yet, but he knew he had to save him. He tried to wake hm up, to see his face, to just save him and go back to the base and talk about fun stuff, like they always did. He felt so lost, without knowing what to do.

"Herr Heavy?..." suddenly, Heavy was able to see the other man's face, but what he saw surprised and scared him even more. It wasn't his old friend. It was the new Medic.

Heavy woke up with a gasp, sitting up in the process. His face was covered in cold sweat and his hands were trembling. Even before his mind could think about it, he was running out of his room towards Klauss room. Once he arrived, he opened the door and went inside, wihout making a noise. He found Klauss on his bed, sleeping peacefully like nothing happened; because nothing really happened, and Heavy knew it. Even with that, he went next to the sleeping form that was in front of him, and took off the blanket for a moment, inspecting the Medic's stomach, looking for anything wrong. But everything was fine, he was alright.

Heavy sighed in relief, before putting the blankets back on his friend, and went back to his room.

The large man sat on his bed, with his face between his hands. Why did he go and check on his friend? It was only a nightmare, and nightmares aren't real. For the first time in years he felt confused, yet surprised to find himself in this situation. Also there was another fact: that man sleeping in that room wasn't his friend. As much as he wanted the old Medic, no...Heinrich back, he couldn't. No one can defeat death, and no one can come back once that step is taken.

Was he being friendly to this man because he wanted to see Heinrich in him? Or perhaps was something else? Maybe the way that man looked so lost and sad, even with a constant smile on his face?.

Heavy looked at the clock next to his bed and saw that it was only thirty minutes before dawn. He couldn't go back to sleep anyways, so he went back to Klauss room, took a chair and sat next to the bed, waiting for the Medic to wake up.

...

When he opened his eyes he could see that the sun was merely comming out, like it was being lazy because the night was too short, or at least that's what Klauss thought in that moment. The night was always quite short when someone is having a good sleep. He stretched a bit without sitting, and then noticed the Heavy.

"Oh, guten morgen, Herr Heavy" said with a smile, still sleepy. The large man nodded a 'good morning' as well, and then stood up to let Klauss get up. "Can I ask what are you doing in my room so early? Did you have a nightmare?"

"Da" answered the Heavy. He didn't know what else to say, and now he was thinking about how awkward must be for the Medic to wake up and find him next to his bed. But the smaller man just smiled and patted his shoulder. "Nightmares are only dreams, they're not real. Come! I'll make a good breakfast for you and Archimedes!" he turned around to leave the room, but before he could go out of it, he heard Heavy saying something. He turned to face the man. "What was that?" asked with a smile.

"Viktor" said Heavy again, now looking at him in the eyes, with a serious expression. Klauss understood that the man was taking a huge step doing what was forbidden to them: share the name. The Medic nodded, and then, smiling as always, he answered "Klauss. Nice to meet you Viktor". Heavy smiled, like a huge weight fell off from his shoulders, and then followed Klauss to the kitchen.

...

The fight that day was going as usual: scare between yourselves with yelling and shooting at the air (or at a thumb, since they got a Medic now, and the BLU was taking advantage of it). Scout was doing good with going to get the intel, and the Medic was always next to the Heavy, casually healing the teammate that came with some cuts or a bullet wound that the other team didn't calculate at all (or that's what they would usually say).

Engineer was setting his new dispenser, which could heal faster than the old one, but still slower than Klauss. With that set, the rest of both teams just dedicated their time to run, yell, insult each other and act like monkeys in a zoo.

Everything was going quite alright, and Viktor liked it that way: with Klauss close to him, the BLU team away from them and the yelling filling the air instead of fire and gunshots. Klauss was enjoying the whole thing: like always, he would yell random german insults, and everyone in BLU team would look at him confused, since they couldn't understand what he was saying; he also made sure that when one of the words started to sound familiar, changed it with another.

Of course, that irritated the other team, but he could see a glint of challenge in their eyes, specially from their Scout, who sometimes took his time to stay nearby long enough to hear some of the insults. He even caught the young man saying them himself, which got an irritated response from his teammates. He was sure the Scout didn't know what they meant, but using something that made his teammates angry was one of his hobbies, so he didn't care.

But that day something changed. While none of the Soldiers or Demomans would use their weapons to do more than get an explosion far enough to not hurt them, but close to confuse them for a mere seconds, that day Klauss saw something he didn't see before: a strange sticky bomb on the floor. He didn't know how the Demoman could place a sticky there, but he knew if you touched one, it could explode. They were bombs after all.

In that moment, he saw Viktor about to touch it with his foot. His body reacted before his mind could think what was going on, and he went directly to put the Heavy out of the way. In the last moment, who he saw wasn't Viktor, but someone else, as big and strong as his friend...

'BEEEEEP!'

Spy looked at his watch surprised and confused. It wasn't the Respawn system, although the Administrator already installed it in their base: she wanted to make sure the whole thing continued, the darn woman. But this time it was the memory device inside the Medic's brain. Wait...did that mean?

Before he could even think about it, and intense explosion came from the bridge. The whole thing collapsed, and he saw two bodies falling in the water. He was in the enemy's sewer, so he was able to quickly come out and see what happened. He saw the Heavy holding close the body of the Medic, trying to get him into their team's sewer before he could drown. Spy went next to them once the Heavy took the Medic inside the sewer; he could hear the rest of the team yelling with surprise and confusion, but his attention was focused on the pair in front of him.

"Heavy! what happened?!" the large man looked at him scared, something that made the Spy cringe: Heavy was that kind of man that would never get scared of anything. "There...there was a bomb in the bridge...I was going to step on it and...Doktor..." Spy looked down at the Medic, who wasn't moving "the Doktor...took my place and...we have to help him!". Spy got closer to the smaller man, and took his pulse. He sighed, and looked sadly at the Heavy. "I'm afraid...there's nothing we can for him, Heavy". He sounded...sad? Maybe he overestimated his cold-self a bit too much, for now he was feeling bad because of the death of that darn, crazy man.

Heavy, on the other side, was in shock. There he was again, holding the corpse of his friend, unable to help him. The nightmare came back to him, and he wanted to yell and curse in every possible way. He was about to fall in the dark depression when all of sudden Klauss body started to glow in pure, bright white light. Spy, surprised, looked at his watch.

The Respawn System was all green and processing information. After a few confusing seconds, the bright light ended, and Heavy could see that Klauss was still injured, but breathing. He was breathing...

Viktor looked confused at the Spy, who looked back at him with a serious expression on his face.

"I think it's time for you to know about something, mon ami..."


	8. Author's note (Is not the end)

Hello people.

I just wanted to say that I want to restar this story, since the last chapters were kind of...weak, and a bit rushed.  
>I'll keep the first chapter, but make the story a bit less rushed. I noticed this after writing "Fénix", and I think I can do a better plot in this one, so let me test my nglish writing with "Fénix" and I'll try again with "Missing cog in the machine".<p>

Thanks for reading.


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